The Hidden Glacivira
by fina5
Summary: Jack Frost was looking for his soul mate and after thousands of years, he stumbled upon Ana. At first she's completely freaked that all those tales she was told about as child are real, but after a while, she becomes familiar, and even comfortable, with Jack.
1. Hostage Situation

The craziest thing just happened a few minutes ago. I'm still not even sure if it's all tangible.

It was right after sixth period, and I was walking through the schoolyard. The wind was unreasonably cold for a day in May, so I was freezing in my tank-top and basketball shorts. I had the feeling that someone was watching me, but there was no one around.

By the time I was about fifteen meters from the campus exit, my skin was burning from the frost in the air, and I could just tell that I was extra pale right then. I had been borne unnaturally pale for a half-Egyptian girl, and my skin would always feel freezing to others, but this was just ridiculous.

Then something made me stop dead in my tracks. I felt as if something – someone – was watching me, right in front of me, but I just couldn't see it!

If only I had known. If I'd any sense I would've run for all I was worth.

Then I felt hands – cold, freezing hands – grab my arms, and I began to freeze over, literally. What seemed to be a tornado of snow swirled around me, and all my skin turned blue. Honest-to-goodness blue! My hair flew wildly around my face, and from what I could tell, it was turning purple. I was forced to close my eyes because of the dull yet screaming pain enveloping my body. The cold had entered my veins and was in fact turning me into a cold-blooded creature. I could feel it getting closer and closer to my heart, and I just knew that when it made it there, I'd be done for.

When it did reach my heart though, I past out.

I woke up to panic-stricken rambling and the sound of pacing, figuring I was in the hospital.

" –Killed her. I've killed her. I just know I've killed her!" The voice was young, male, and definitely overwrought. I pried my eyes open, which hurt quite a bit, and found myself looking at a cement floor covered in old, dried up gum. To be more specific, the cement floor that covers my high school. Which means that I was still at school, and that perhaps the whole being-turned-into-a-human-popsicle really happened. I certainly hoped not.

I lifted my shoulder slightly, causing me to moan in pain, and heard the pacing and rambling stop. I turned my neck to look over to where the sound had been, and saw a teenaged boy looking down at me in complete horror.

Actually, correction; a _blue_ teenaged boy.

I gave out a strangled gasp of surprise at the oddly coloured individual, and for some reason, it caused him to start grinning like a lunatic, which only freaked me out even more. He made a step closer to me, so I backed up in response, hoping he'd take the hint.

Apparently not.

He bent down and helped me up. Once I was standing along with him, I took a good look at him. His eyes, skin, and hair were all blue, each a paler variation of the colour than the last. He was quite tall, lean, and muscular, so I supposed he was sixteen. He had a mischievous glint in his eyes that both unnerved and excited me.

"Hi!" he said, though it sounded like he was yelling. I quickly covered my ears only to pull my hands back down a moment later. They were _blue_. I screamed then, very loudly. The boy swiftly silenced me by putting his hand over my mouth. "Shh," he whispered. "I don't know if the mortals can see you or not."

I bit his hand and was about to start yelling at him when what looked to be a wormhole appeared in front of me. I just stood there dumbfounded, gawking at the swirling of blue and purple for a while until the boy waved his hand in front of my face. He gestured awkwardly at it. "Uh, after you."

I looked back and forth at the wormhole and the boy until I found my voice, which turned out to be scratchy-sounding. "You mean, it's like a portal?" He nodded and told me that we should really get going. In response, I held up my hand and said, "Yeah, how about no? I don't know you, or how portals are possible, so I'm just gonna go home. Bye." I feigned a smile and picked up my backpack from off the floor and started to walk away, but he was faster than me, and before I knew it, he was right in front of me.

"Okay, I know this sounds weird and everything, but you have to come with me through that portal." He planted his feet down to show that there was no way that I was getting around him. I sighed in anger and glared at him, but that didn't make him move, and it's not like I could've overpowered him, he had at least twenty pounds on me.

I thought about it for a while, and then knew what I had to do. I had to trick him. "Hmm, fine. But only if you tell me your name."

He wavered for a moment, but finally said, "Jack."

"Jack what?"

"Jack…" he hesitated, then set his jaw in what could only be annoyance with me, somehow making him look taller, which only scared me more. "Jack Frost."

I snorted and was about to tell him how ridiculous that lie was, until it hit me. He's blue, the air around him is very cold. He's Jack Frost, _the_ Jack Frost. My eyes widen from shock and I am unable to move, so he takes this as an opportunity to lead me over to the portal, and push me through it.

* * *

Now, after a montage of swirling colours zipping past me, I fall onto an icy floor. Jack looms over me with his arms crossed, so I get up, ready for a fight, although I have the strange suspicion that there won't be one. A teasing smile plays on his lips as if he enjoys tormenting people, and then I remember that he was known for being some kind of immortal wise guy who ticked everyone off.

Well, it all makes since now.

"So," he starts. "Now you know my name. Why don't you tell me yours?"

I squint my eyes at him in annoyance and shock, then shriek, "No! Take me back home!"

He shrugs. "You are home." I quickly survey my surroundings, surprised to see what looked to be a frozen living room.

I raise an eyebrow at him and plant a hand on my hip. "What part of this is my home?" He doesn't seem to register my question though, because he seems much more interested in what part of my body I'm currently resting my hand on. I snap my fingers in front of his face. "Hey. You've got some explaining to do, Frost."

He looks up at me with a bored expression, as if having to stress whatever it is he thinks he's already told me would just be too hard for him. "Mm, fine. Let's see, where to start?" I believe the question is rhetorical, so I don't answer him, and finally he says, "So, you've heard of me, right? Jack Frost, patron of winter, blah, blah, blah." I nod, and he continues, "Well, I happen to be a member of an immortal family in a race superior to humans called Glaciviri. And the deal with immortals is that when you reach a certain age, depending on the individual, you just stop aging. Mine was fourteen."

"Okay," I try to make since of this all, but the dots aren't connecting. "But what does that have to do with me?"

"I'm getting there." he says to the ceiling. "Now, when immortals get married, whomever they marry becomes immortal also, and they get to bump up their age by two years. So, for instance, if I were to get married, I would become sixteen." He stops, looking at the floor, as if disappointed. "Anyway," he presses on. "After about, oh, two-thousand years, I began to wonder when I was going to meet my soul mate and my mother told me that when I was an infant, she had been told a prophecy saying that my soul mate would be a mortal human."

He stops there, and looks me dead in the eye, as if I'm supposed to understand something. "But wait, doesn't your touch, like, freeze people to death?"

His face breaks into several emotions; pain, shame, sadness, resentment. He looks at me as though that was my fault. "You didn't die."

The words hang in the air for a few long moments, until I finally get it. He's supposed to fall in love with a mortal human, and that's exactly what I am, or at least, was. "Wait, so you mean that I . . . ?" I can't bear to get the word out, because it just makes no sense. I'm fourteen. I'm a freshman in high school. I can't be some immortal teenager's soul mate.

He nods and walks a few steps towards me so that we're only a foot apart. He replaces his frown with an impish grin. "So, I guess we're roommates." I glare at him and tell him to take me home again. He sighs. "Look, this is your home now. If you go back they'll either not be able to even see you, or they'll kill you because your skin is blue and your hair is purple." I don't think he meant to be mean, but I almost cry anyway, and there is no way that I'd let this guy see me cry. He'd either pity me or laugh at me, and, frankly, each would be more awful than the other.

I bite back several curse words. "Fine. Whatever. But there is no way that I'm sleeping in the same room as you." He shrugs and goes around me, and I follow him, hoping that he wasn't just planning to leave me hanging. We exit the living room, go down a long hallway, and finally he opens a door. I peer inside to see a bedroom that looks as though it hasn't been used since I was borne. He tells me that this is where I can sleep for now and that I can put on the clothes in the armoire.

"If you need me just scream like you're being attacked by a pack of wolves. I might come find you." He closes he door behind him and I hear the distinct _click_ of a lock.

Oh, just perfect, I'm locked in.

I walk over to the armoire and pull out a long pink dress that happens to be bone-chilling, but that doesn't bother me, because now _I'm_ freezing, just like everything else here. I take off my clothes from Earth, which as it turns out were melting me, and put on the pink dress.

I then proceed to cry on the floor like a baby. I cry for not being able to graduate from high school, see my friends ever again, and just for the fact that I am no longer even human. I realize that he left without even learning my name.

I can only hope that all eternity will not be like this.


	2. Friendships

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* * *

I ended up crying myself to sleep last night, so when I woke up I was still on the floor. I spent the first few hours of the morning thoroughly examining the room. I went through all the drawers, hoping to find some kind of weapon that I could use against Jack. I mean, sure, he's immortal, but maybe I could just knock him out long enough to escape.

But where would I escape? Though I'll never admit it to him, I really do have nowhere to go. Any sane human wouldn't accept me, and I don't even know how I'd get back to Earth in the first place.

After I couldn't find a weapon or any undergarments, I started scratching at my newly coloured skin, seeing if it would come off. Unfortunately, all that did was give me small cuts that bled purple and would heal themselves after about two seconds. That led me to two conclusions: One, my newly coloured hair was the colour of blood here. And two, since my wounds heal themselves so fast, I'm probably immortal, too.

I threw myself at the door a few times, seeing if it would budge. It didn't.

Now I'm lying on the floor again, wondering what time it is and if I'll starve forever.

I start thumb wrestling with myself, and when lefty is just about to win, I hear the lock on the door go _click_, open.

I try to think of a plan to hide from Jack, but come up with nothing. So, I pretend to be asleep.

I hear the door creak open and Jack mumbling to himself about how he has to oil it. Then it's weird, because I don't hear any walking, but I don't think he's still standing in the doorway.

"Boo." is whispered in my ear, causing me to scream and flip onto my back. I see that Jack has planted his feet on either side of me and is grinning down at me with satisfaction. "Good morning." he annoyingly coos.

I slowly get up from the floor, careful not to touch him. Once I'm standing at eye-level with him, or really, his eyes being two inches above mine, I say, "Good morning." through gritted teeth. We continue to stand there awkwardly for a moment until curiosity gets the best of me. "How did you get right over me without walking?"

Amusement plays in his eyes, and I can tell that freaking me out is going to be one of his new favorite pastimes. "I flew." he says simply. He flew. Of course he flew. That just makes so much sense. "I really did," he says, and I wonder if he can read my mind. "And no, I can't read your mind." That only makes me believe that he can more.

I get angry with him and walk out the door, relieved to hear his footsteps behind me. I go down the same hallway that he took me through yesterday, and after a while I reach the living room recovered from the Ice Age. I stop abruptly, causing Jack to ram into me. I nearly lose my balance, but quickly regain it.

Then I realize that this is ridiculous. I'm so mad at him, but all he did was listen to some stupid curse that was put on him thousands of years ago. I need to try to get along with him, because what other choice do I have? This was obviously meant to happen, being that it was set millennia before I was borne.

Besides, how bad could it be? It's not like he's harmed me in anyway. He's trying to be nice. I should try too.

I start smiling, because I realize that's what my mother used to tell me.

"What?" he asks, smiling too.

I clear my throat. "Nothing." It gets really awkward then, and I wonder if I'm blushing since my cheeks are getting extra cold. "Oh, and by the way, my name is Ana."

A spark of hopefulness dances in his eyes and he laughs. "Yeah, I was gonna ask."

We stand there for a couple moments until I say, "Uh, do you have any food? 'Cause I'm starving." He tells me that I should've told him I was hungry earlier, and takes me to the kitchen. All the cabinets and pantries and cooking devices look like they've been frozen for the past thirty years. I open up a cabinet, and am surprised to find a bottle of brandy. "Um, Jack," I wait for him to come to where I'm standing until I continue. "Why do you have brandy? You're fourteen."

He snorts in indifference. "Please, I'm 6,752 years old." he states. I stare open-mouthed at him for about a minute until he realizes how freaked out I am. "But it's not like–I mean–I'm not–Ugh!" He glares at the floor.

I start laughing at his inability to form a sentence when he's seemingly embarrassed and angry at the same time. He looks up at me with the expression of a four-year-old that has his cousins picking on him. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing." I lie, trying to keep a straight face.

"Anyway," He closes the cabinet. "You can't have alcohol, so I suggest you find something to eat. Imma go take a shower. Bye." I notice how low his voice is, and how he totally doesn't look like he's only fourteen. He probably developed early, which is good. I know that if I had to spend all eternity as an undeveloped kid, I would not be pleased.

"M'kay. Bye."

He exits through the swinging door from which we came, and I begin to look for food while reflecting on what was one of the most sweet and awkward moments of my young life.

* * *

I hear, "Boo!" while I'm debating with myself on how to prepare a bowl of pasta I found, causing me to flinch.

I turn around slowly and glare at Jack. "You have got to stop doing that."

He ambles his way over to me with a relaxed smile playing on his lips. "I've only done it twice."

"And that was enough." He snorts at my apprehension. Then he notices the bowl of pasta. He opens up what I thought was a cabinet over what I think is a stove, but is actually some sort of microwave with two giant holes on the sides and icicles hanging from its ceiling, and puts the bowl of pasta in it. He puts his hand under the frozen microwave and for a second I hear the sound of wind blowing. He takes out the pasta after that and sets it on the counter.

"There." he says looking quite pleased with himself.

I point at the not-a-cabinet like an idiot. "Uh . . ."

"It's like an anti-microwave. It's powered by my magical I-can-freeze-anything skills." I notice that he talks about his powers like he's not all too pleased with them. I wonder why. . . .

"Oh. Cool." I say quietly. He tells me that there's a table just outside the swinging door where I can eat my pasta, and hands me a fork. I leave just as he's opening the gelid pantry. The table happens to be on the complete other side of the living room from the door to the kitchen, and I roll my eyes.

I sit down in a chair adjacent to the head of the table and begin to eat my pasta. It's very cold, and for some reason, that makes me like it even more. And I already thought that I loved pasta to the full extent.

Jack sits down at the head of the table with a bowl of Frosted Flakes. And by Frosted Flakes, I mean _frosted_ Flakes. We eat in silence for while, until he says, "So, I was thinking, that if you wanna leave your parents a note or something to say that you're not dead, that would be cool."

I tense up at his words. I haven't talked about my parents in years. "Oh," I awkwardly say. "Um, nah. It's fine."

He looks at me incredulously. "Really? Won't they notice that you're gone?"

I try desperately to find something to say, so that I can avoid this conversation, but come up with nothing. Instead I settle for, "Doubt it."

"But they're your _parents_."

"So?" I stubbornly ask, instead of just telling him the truth.

Then I realize that my question came out rather bitter. He looks hurt, as though the one word I've said has devastated him.

And for some reason, it makes me want to slap him.

"Why do you care?" I continue acridly.

"I–" His contorts with several emotions, until he settles with one. Anger.

He glares at me with disgust and crossness. "Whatever."

Then he and his cereal vanish into thin, frigid air.

The expression of annoyance melts off my face and is replaced with one of sorrow and exhaustion. I place my elbows on the table and hold my head in my hands, chiding myself for being so rude when he was only trying to help me out.

I have really got to work on my people skills. I mean, really, our friendship lasted what, twenty-four minutes?

Well, at least it lasted longer than most of my other friendships. Once they figure out that your parents are dead, they never want to talk to you again.


	3. Annoying Cousins and Scary Monsters

**Sorry for the late update! Geometry is not always easy. But I made this chapter pretty long, so...**

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* * *

I have not seen Jack Frost for a week. I've still been going to the kitchen for food, but I haven't crossed paths with him – or even caught a glimpse of him – for a week.

I must've really upset him. I didn't know that I could be so mean.

Sometimes I go into a room, and it's cooler than the rest of the house, and I know that Jack has just been there.

I found a restroom – thank goodness! – right across from my door, so I use it whenever I need to. The water in the shower is especially freezing, but it feels fine to me. Though I doubt as a human I would've been able to tolerate it.

I looked at myself in the mirror for, like, an hour, not believing what I'm seeing. My skin is a very pale blue, only a little darker than Jack's skin colour. My hair looks like a lavender flower was squeezed all over it. My eyes changed colour, too. They used to be dark brown, but now they're a light blue.

I found a book in the living room called _The Glaciviri Body_, and started reading up on that. Turns out, the bodily systems of Glaciviri are pretty much the same as humans, except near frozen and they work slower, causing the average life span to be 120 years. I also found out that Glaciviri don't have appendixes, which I'm not disappointed about. Humans hardly use them anyway, yet they cause life-threatening cancers. It just makes no sense.

I've been spending a lot of time in my room. I started sleeping on the bed, much more comfortable than the floor. Once when I was sleeping, I felt a sharp pain on my ankle. I found a cut that encircled my entire ankle. I started to freak out, wondering if someone had done this to me, yet I couldn't see him or her. I had decided to relax my mind with some reading, and in Chapter 25 of _The Glaciviri Body, _I found out that for immortals, it means you're on your period. As anyone would imagine, I was quite relieved that it was just my period, and not some psycho killer marking me.

After the fourth day of being by my lonesome, I started to think about my friends. Tilly and Zade. They were probably freaking out, figuring that I'm dead. I remember how they'd always had my back, and how we'd do everything together. Both their parents were really nice to me, and Zade's parents used to always joke about Zade and me one day getting married, which upset Tilly because she liked him a lot. We used to call ourselves The Three Musketeers, and Tilly would always remind us that there were actually four musketeers, and we'd laugh and tell her to shut up, and she wouldn't mind because she knew we were just joking. Man, I loved those two.

I'm still thinking about them now, actually.

Yeah, okay, it's official. I'm really lonely. I can't keep playing tic-tac-toe with myself in the window smog, or dancing alone to memories of my favorite songs. I'll go crazy.

I need to apologize to Jack.

* * *

I finally find his room. How did I know it's his room? Just standing outside of the door gives me goose bumps. I knock on the door.

The door opens, and the air around me turns nippy. Jack looks at me with disdain as he leans against the doorframe. I try to put on a smile, but I think it ends up as a grimace.

"What do you want?" he asks, his voice deep.

"I'm sorry." I blurt out. "I didn't mean to upset you," He raises an eyebrow to question my apology. "Really." I breathe.

He straightens up and smiles. "'Kay."

I look at him with bewilderment. "Wait, so, you're not mad?"

He shrugs. "No."

"But–Then why did you avoid me for a week?"

"Well, I was mad at you at first, but then I got over it." He stuffs his hands in his pockets and puts all his weight on his right leg, like any other teenage guy trying to antagonize someone.

"Seriously?" I shriek.

"Yup." He nods. "Oh, and also, did you like the book I left you?"

"What the–?" I make random motions with my hands, you know, Darth Vader style. "Really? Okay, yes. Ha-ha. Very funny. You're such a comedian."

He laughs at my obvious annoyance. Then he rearranges his features into a serious expression. "So, why can't we tell your parents that you're not dead?"

I sigh in defeat. "'Cause they died in a car crash when I was five."

He flinches ever so slightly, but I catch it, and I know that that's not what he expected to hear. "Oh," He pauses, "That's too bad."

I don't want yet another look of pity from someone, so I stare at my bare feet. Then I notice that Jack doesn't have shoes or socks on either. I furrow my brow, trying to remember if there was ever anything I read about him not wearing shoes. Nothing rings a bell. It's weird though, that he doesn't wear shoes. I mean, he's out in the winter all the time. He could get frostbite.

Oh, wow, that was stupid. He can't get frostbite. He's Jack _Frost_. And he makes winter. Duh.

I hear him clear his throat, and look up reluctantly. "Um, but, didn't anyone adopt you?" His voice squeaks at the end; it annoys me.

I shake my head. "No. I was sent to an orphanage since my grandparents were all dead and I didn't have any aunts or uncles, except for my Aunt Lucy. And in an orphanage, if you're not young, it's unlikely that you'll get adopted. And I was too depressed about my parents when I was younger, so no one wanted me."

He just looks at me sadly for a while, so I resolve to look at the baby blue walls. I remember all the times of when people would tell me that they're sorry or glance at me with pity when I told them that my parents died. I've always hated it. They didn't actually know what it felt like to have your parents die when you were so young. They couldn't. And even if they did, it couldn't have been as bad as mine.

I feel something cold at the crook of my elbow, causing me to gasp, yet giving me a slight thrill. When I look to see what it was, it turns out to be Jack's hand. "Sorry, but you weren't responding."

"Oh, I was lost in thought. What did you say?"

"What about your Aunt Lucy? Why didn't she take you in?" he asks with curiosity. The thought of my aunt brings back bad memories, particularly of me crying.

I feel like my mouth is full of cotton and my throat is full of knives, but I manage to get the words out. "She didn't want me. She's very religious and thought that the reason my skin was so cold was because I was a devil-child, like from where Hell had frozen over."

He bursts out laughing. I'm angered and appalled by this, but he doesn't seem to notice. "You're kidding right? Oh, if only she knew the truth!" He clutches his abdomen and continues to cackle, while I burn imaginary holes into his back with my eyes.

"It also happens to be true." I say through clenched teeth.

He stops laughing abruptly. "Wait, seriously?" He gives me a look of shock, and I nod. He gets up from the floor. "Oh," He laughs nervously. "I thought you were joking." I just stare at him, now actually trying to see how embarrassed I can make him. The air suddenly becomes crisper, and I wish fiercely for a bra. He doesn't notice though. "But really, that's terrible. I mean, your Aunt Lucy sounds like a . . ." I raise my eyebrows at him, daring him to insult my heinous aunt. "A really mean person." He improvises. I nod with satisfaction.

We stand uncomfortably in place for a while until I say, "So, I was wondering if you could show me the way back to my room, 'cause it took me a while to find you and I didn't leave a trail of breadcrumbs."

He laughs shortly. "Yeah, sure." He closes the door to his room, stops, and then looks at me awkwardly. I pretend not to notice and start walking down the hall, and then he falls into step next to me. I take into realization that we're walking next to each other, instead of me following him or me walking haughtily in front of him. It's nice.

* * *

This time I stayed friends with Jack. We ate together and hung out together. After we really started to get along, I realized that I really need undergarments. As a solution, I used the anti-microwave to freeze the undergarments I already had, but couldn't wear. I couldn't figure out how to work it though, and had to get Jack to. When he asked me what was in there, I told him not to ask and shrieked whenever he tried to bring it up. He avoided me for a couple hours after that.

I started to get used to the specific coldness that hung in the air around him, and at times it was even inviting. I noticed that the skin around his eyes crinkles a little when he smiles big, and that his teeth are really white, like snow. He's quite taller than me, so when we stand near each other he has to look down at me; I don't mind.

Most of the time we'd just sit on the couch in the living room and talk. I found out that he has a brother and a sister, both married. He has a niece who's roughly three years old, and is apparently adorable. His parents live far away, so he doesn't visit them much, although I think that for a guy who travels to Earth for three to four months at a time to bring winter, distance isn't much of a problem. He told me that his grandmother is crazy, so I told him to respect his elders. I don't think he cares though.

At other times I'll turn my head and when I look back he'll be gone. So I'll look for him and he'd say, "Boo." in my ear, freaking me out. I have really never liked surprises.

A few minutes ago I found a knife in my room – I don't want to know why it was there – and used it to make my dress shorter because its length was making me sweat, which now is basically just melting.

I tie my hair up and exit my room, startled to find Jack leaving the bathroom without a shirt. I inhale sharply, and when he sees me, his cheeks turn positively blue. I stutter for a while, completely unable to form actual words, let alone sentences.

Then that annoying, hormonal side of my brain that I wish would just keep to itself registers that he looks good. Against my will, my eyes give him a one-over, while I silently chide my teenaged girl-ness. This only embarrasses him more, causing the air in the hallway to become really cold, and so I quickly reopen my door, slip inside, and close it.

My back is against the wall and I'm breathing deeply and beginning to wonder: do I like Jack? I mean, I have liked his company quite much in the past several weeks; and not in the same way that I liked Tilly and Zade's company.

No, that's ridiculous. We're just friends.

_Yeah, friends that are destined to be soul mates, _I tell myself.

Oh no.

I groan aloud, very annoyed with the fact that I like him already. I mean, sure, I knew it was going to happen eventually, but now? The fact that I'm only fourteen merely furthers my agitation.

I figure that he's gone by now, so I slowly open the door and then jog towards the living room. Once there, I nearly pull my hair out with anger.

Then I hear a loud banging. It shakes the room, and some snow falls from the ceiling. It came from the door at the opposite side of the living room to the door to the kitchen, and so I worry. I have never been through that door. Jack says I shouldn't, and I didn't question him. And now there is something making loud noises on the other side of that door. I nearly run to find Jack, despite my embarrassment with him, when I hear a young, female voice.

"Jack? I know you're in there." Curiosity eats at me, and so I slowly walk over to the door. I hear another loud bang, and end up opening the door with annoyance. The first thing I notice is that outside the door, is a porch. And beyond the porch are huge snowy fields and a forest to the right. Jack didn't want me to go outside?

Then I notice the girl. She's tall, blonde, and looks to be about twenty. But what really freaks me out, is that she's _human_.

"Oh, wow." she says. She snorts in disbelief at something, and states, "I can't believe it."

"Can't believe what?" I ask, probably sounding incredibly stupid since I'm so preoccupied with the fact that I'm talking to an actual human.

"I can't believe that Jack would hire a hooker."

That gets my attention.

I cross my arms over my chest. "Excuse me?" I ask with a cocked eyebrow. Nobody calls me a hooker.

"Oh, sorry," she finally makes eye contact with me. "Do you prefer to be called a prostitute?"

"What?" I shriek. "I am not a prostitute. Why would you think that? And who the heck are you?"

She gives me the same attitude that I'm giving her, "I'd like to know the same about you."

"What the–" I try to grasp at something to make sense of all this, but come up with nothing. As a solution, I scream, "Jack!" into the house.

He materializes next to me with a shirt and a worried expression on his face. "What happ–" He sees the human girl. "Oh no." he grumbles.

She feigns perkiness. "Nice to see you, too, Jack."

His shoulders drop and he pinches his nose. "What do you want, Kaliegh?" he asks the girl.

"I want to know why you have a hooker."

I growl in frustration at her, which only makes her smile more genuine. Jack glances at me for a second, and then turns back to Kaliegh. "Ana is not a hooker." Hearing him say my name sends a shiver down my spine, which I nearly slap myself for.

"Oh," Kaliegh starts, and I just know that I'm not going to like what comes out of her mouth. "So she has a name." I get irrationally angry and step forward to hit her, but Jack stops me by slipping his arm around my waist and pulling me back. Luckily Jack doesn't catch what that does to me. Unfortunately, Kaliegh does. Her voice fills will laughter. "Oh, now I get it. The prophecy is finally coming true." Jack gets embarrassed at this and lets go of me, which is slightly disappointing.

I refrain from slapping myself again.

"Jack has a girlfriend." Kaliegh sings.

He sets his jaw in annoyance. "Is there a reason as to why you're here, cousin? Or can I just slam the door in your face?"  
She sighs, pulls a letter from her coat, and hands it to Jack. "Naomi is turning three. Your brother wants you to attend the party, though I can't imagine why." Jack glares at her, which only widens her taunting smile. "And I'm sure that Uncle and Aunty Frost would love to meet Little Miss Ana." With that she pulls a snow globe from her coat, shakes it until a large cabin in snowy mountains appears in it, and throws it into the air next to her. It turns into a portal. She waves at us. "Ta-ta." Then she jumps through the portal, and it disappears with her.

Jack pushes the door shut. "Sorry about grabbing you." he says without looking at me. I tell him that it's fine, but leave out the part about how I wish he'd do it again and mentally slap myself. He goes and sits over on the couch with his legs folded under him, and I follow and sit next to him. He tears the letter open and pulls a card out. He reads it aloud, "Dear brother, I wish for you to attend my daughter's third birthday as is tradition in, blah, blah, blah," He flips the card over. "Dress nicely and wear shoes. Sincerely, Christian." He looks at the wall on the other side of the room, lost in thought.

"Jack?" I start. He raises his eyebrows, but doesn't look at me. "Who's Kaliegh?"

He sighs and sets his feet on the ground. "She's my annoying cousin. Old North's daughter. We've never really gotten along, but she likes to aggravate me whenever she gets the chance."

I ponder on this for a while and then ask, "Who's 'Old North?'"

"My uncle." That's all he says, so I take that there's nothing quite special about him, must just be his nickname.

He sits back and finally looks at me. "So, looks like we're going to a party."

* * *

I have to learn how to dance. And let this be said, I cannot dance. I have tried and I have failed. I always trip over my own feet, but in this case it's even worse because I have to dance with another person.

Yesterday Jack brought me into an empty room, just plain walls and floor, and said that we'll practice here. After I stepped on his feet a few times he went to get shoes. He was gone for a half an hour. I stood standing in the middle of the room, playing with my fingers.

Today I'm just spinning around, watching my skirt twirl around me until I fall.

I'm lying on my back when Jack comes back from the bathroom. "Uh, what are you doing?"

I jump from the floor. "Nothing."

He laughs and walks over to me. I notice that he's wearing shoes. I also notice that they look to be a thousand years old. "Okay, so, you ready?" he asks. I shake my head. "Oh, come on. It's not too hard." I sigh and give him my hand again. He puts his hand on my back and pulls me closer to him, and we start dancing again. He mumbles numbers under his breathe, while I try to keep up with him. I just start to get the hang of it when I fumble and fall to the ground.

I pull at my hair. "Ugh! I can't do it!"

"Yes you can."

"Oh please," I protest. "We've been at this for hours. I can't dance. There's nothing to do about it." His face scrunches up in concentration. "When is the party again?" I ask.

He sighs. "Tomorrow." I groan again. We're silent for a few minutes, and then he says, "It doesn't matter. There's something else to do anyway." I ask what it is, but he shakes his head and pulls me from off the floor. He tells me to go into the living room and wait for him and then runs off, and so I do. I'm sitting upside on the couch when I see him looking down at me. I quickly turn and sit upright. He hands me the thinnest shoes I have ever seen in my life and tells me that I need to put them on. I do, and I find that they're only a little big for me. "Come on." He walks over to the door that leads to the outside, hesitates, and then opens it. He gestures for me to follow, and I practically skip after him. I'm going outside!

The first thing I notice is the wonderful icy air. The wind swirls with snow, but I can still see quite clearly. The ground beneath the porch is covered in snow. All the bright white around me is overwhelming, and I find myself squinting slightly. Jack closes the door and walks down the steps. I follow him, wondering why he didn't bother to lock it. We walk towards the forest of tall, purple trees with snow-covered branches. I turn around to see where we came from, and am surprised to see a giant house. I gape at it and figure that Jack must be a kajillionaire.

We plunge into the trees. I walk close to him, frightened at the immediate darkness that surrounds us. We walk in tense silence for several minutes, until I say, "Where are we going?"

"To a nearby village." He says simply. He seems very distant, and that aggravates me because he won't explain things that just make no sense to me. Like, for instance, as to why we're going to a nearby village. I wonder again if he can read my mind when he says, "You need clothes and shoes. You can't keep wearing the things my sister wore centuries ago." I nod in agreement because really, hand washing the same dress everyday gets tiring, and I'm not sure that I can wear this to Naomi's party.

After about an hour of walking – in complete silence might I add – I start to see lights. Manmade lights, or rather, Glaciviri-made lights. Jack stops walking. "Okay, this is as far as I can take you." He hands me a small pouch and says that there are ten coins in there, which should be enough for some clothes. I ask him why he can't go with me. "The village people don't exactly like me." he says with a pained expression. "You'll have to go on your own. Can you walk back by yourself?" He doesn't wait for me to answer. "Good." He vanishes. I sigh in anger with him for abandoning me, and then trudge my way to the lights.

The village is beautiful. There are wooden shops all around me, and farther to my left I can see houses. Snow rests on the roofs of all the buildings, and it looks like a winter wonderland. People of different shades of blue walk around with bags of food, clothing, and other such things. A few little children with pink hair run past me as I walk to a store with a sigh that says Clothing in yellow paint hanging over the door, and I smile at them. Once in the store I find the women's attire and pick out two skirts, one blue and one green, two shirts, one yellow and one pink, a few undergarments, and a long, lavender dress that I think I can wear to the birthday party of a three-year-old. I pay five coins for these. I find that I have to buy shoes from the cobbler, and a tall Glacivir – a male Glaciviri, as they call themselves – gives me directions.

At the cobbler's store I tell him that I have no time for him to make me shoes and ask if he might have any that would fit me. He brings back grey slip-ons, and they fit perfectly. I make a joke saying that it's like I'm Cinderella, and the old Glacivir looks at me as though I'm absurd. I give him two coins for the shoes and quickly leave.

It's dark out now, so the forest looks even more ominous. I clutch the bag containing my new clothes and the shoes Jack gave me and bravely walk into the woods. After walking for about three kilometers, I get the feeling that something is watching me. I pick up my stride on impulse, but stop dead when I hear growling somewhere in front of me. Somewhere close. My breath becomes shallow when I see a pair of glowing yellow eyes only five meters from me. I can see a crude outline of the beast that possesses the eyes and from what I can tell, it's a saber-tooth tiger. But that's only a guess since they've been extinct on Earth for millions of years. Then I realize that this is not Earth.

The creature lets out a terrible shriek, as a response I scream like a baby. It nears me, and my knees begin to buckle. It lunges at me, and I put my hands out as if they could protect me, waiting to for the animal to collide into me.

It doesn't. I peak my eyes open and peer over my hand to see the beast completely frozen with its front paws only decimeters off the ground. I wonder for a minute if Jack had come to my rescue, but don't see him.

I hear another shriek like that from the saber-tooth tiger far off, and run in the other direction. Branches scratch my face and arms as I run, but I don't care. When I grow tired, I stop and huddle up against a tree with my back to it and my bag in front of me. I cry silently, so as not to attract any dinosaurs. I cry at the fact that Jack left me completely alone in a place totally foreign to me to fend for myself. I cry out of utter freight at the prehistoric animal and whatever else I may encounter. I grip my legs so tight that my nails dig into my skin, but I don't really feel it. I sit like this for hours.

My sadness dissolves into anger after a while. Anger at Jack. How could he leave me by myself when I have no idea where to go or what to do? I can't believe that I liked him. What he's done is so awful. It's unforgivable, really. But that prophecy still stands, so I know I'll forgive him for it someday.

My anger turns back to sadness.

I start to hear things. Footsteps, maybe. I dig my nails into the palm of my hand, forcing myself not to move.

"Ana?" I hear. My heart swells with hope at the sound of his voice. Hope that I won't die alone in this forest, eaten by a mastodon or something.

I hear my name a few more times before I can see him, and when I do I leap up and collide into him, clinging to him and burying my face in his neck. I'm reassured by the familiar coldness about him and sigh in relief. He winds his arms tight around me, hugging me back.

"I'm sorry." he says into my shoulder. "I shouldn't have left you alone." He leaves our embrace, but I don't let go, so he still keeps one arm around me. I find myself glad at that in spite of my anger with him. He picks up my bag with his other hand.

I cling to him the whole way home.


	4. Rude Holiday Figures

**Sorry for the late update! This chapter took some brain power!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

I put my hair up in a ponytail. No, it should just stay down. No, that's too boring. I braid it down the side. Who am I? Katniss? I groan aloud. Since when do I care about hair? I used to just tie it up, and go to school. The end. But now I have to do something to it? This is a completely foreign concept to me. I mean, sure, I'm going to a party, but it's for a three-year-old. And yeah, I'm going with Jack, but I'm still mad at him for abandoning me in a forest full of teratoids.

I cried so hard last night. I locked myself in my room and just wept. I killed a saber-tooth tiger. With my hand. What? I ended up passing out from lack of air, but then woke up from nightmares of long-teethed tigers. It was like that all night. I finally got some sleep when I collapsed on the eating table. I woke up to Jack staring at me. Then I slept in my room for a couple of hours. Now I'm getting ready for a little girl's birthday party. But I still don't know what to do with my hair!

I check the clock on the wall again. Twenty minutes past five o' clock. I need to hurry up. We have to be there by five-thirty.

I decide to just put my hair in a bun. It shows off my earrings, the ones I kept from Earth, the only ones I owned. They were my grandmother's pearl earrings, and the last time I saw Aunt Lucy, I stole them from her. She didn't deserve them. She wouldn't even take care of her orphaned niece. I got my ears pierced secretly, and wore them everyday. Sometimes people would try to steal them from me, but I'd just whack them with my backpack and run. They are my earrings.

I quickly slip on my shoes and head out of my room. I enter the Living Room of Coldness, expecting to find Jack, but the room turns out to be empty. I roll my eyes. Then I notice something odd. There seems to be an orange speck flying around the room. It gets closer to me, and I see that it's a gnat. Apparently gnats here are orange. I slowly get closer to it, walking on my heels, ready to squish it. It flies up to the chandelier in the middle of the room, so I circle it.

"What are you doing?" I hear. I nearly jump out of my skin. I turn my head to see Jack staring at me with an odd expression, kind of like the one he looked at me with this morning.

"Tracking a gnat." I say. He raises an eyebrow. "I don't like gnats."

"Well, alright then. You ready to go?"

I reluctantly turn away from the gnat. I sigh quietly. "Yeah." He nods and goes towards the door. I notice that he's wearing a jacket over his normal t-shirt, dress pants, and shoes that don't look like they were run over by a truck eighteen hundred times. I follow him. "Do we have to go through the forest again?" I ask, my voice dripping with fear.

"No." He says simply.

"So, across the plains?" I ask hopefully.

"Nah, that would take too much time." I look at him with utter annoyance and ask him as to just how we are going to get there. "You're not going to like it."

I glare at him. "Unless we have to ride a saber-tooth tiger to get there, I'm sure I'll be fine."

He almost looks as though he's amused, but doesn't make a remark. "No."

"Oh my gosh, Jack. We have to be there by five-thirty. How are we going to get there so quickly?"

He sighs. "Okay, so weird thing, right?" I nod to show that I'm following, but continue with my expression of irritation. "I can kinda teleport." he says in a small voice.

I snort. "Yeah, right."

"No. I'm serious." He steps closer to me. "And we need to go now," He continues to get closer to me, which excites me, but I quickly stomp out the excitement and replace it with uneasiness. "And you can't teleport, so I have to hold onto you."

He slides his arms around my waist and pulls me within make-out distance of him. "Okay," I say shakily. He stares at me with some sort of amusement again, and then the weirdest thing happens.

I feel like I'm being torn apart, but it doesn't hurt. It's extremely cold, like the portal was, yet it feels different. I don't really feel Jack anymore, and for a second I'm scared that he's gone, and I'm going to end up in some alternate dimension.

Then everything comes back together, and I'm right where I started: in Jack's arms. My eyes are squeezed shut. "Where are we?" I whisper. I hear talking all around us, the clatter of dishes, the scuttle of feet.

"We're at the party." He says with a normal volume. I open my eyes and peer around the room. I see people of all kinds. From humans to Glaciviri to– animals? They're all dressed nicely and look to be in a generally good mood. How rude could you really get at a little girl's birthday party? Though it does seem a bit extravagant for a toddler.

I realize that Jack is still holding me. I awkwardly step away from him. "So–"

"Jack!" I hear someone yell. Jack looks over my shoulder and a smile spreads across his face. I turn around. A tall Glacivir with white hair, about nineteen years old, that looks somewhat like Jack is coming toward us. I quickly step to the other side of Jack before the Glacivir gets here. "So glad you came!" The two of them embrace and then playfully shove each other like young boys. I simply observe this, having no idea what to do. The Glacivir looks over at me with small interest. "Excuse us." He says this to make me leave – I'm not stupid – but where would I go?

I get nervous. "Jack," I say quickly.

"Right." Jack says. He looks over at me, "I'm awful at introductions. Ana, this is my brother, Christian. Christian, this is Ana."

Christian instantly becomes nicer to me. We shake hands and exchange greetings. "So, Ana is just Ana?" Christian asks.

Jack looks suddenly embarrassed and uncomfortable. "Ana is . . ." He trails off.

Christian takes on a mischievous look, much like Jack's. "Oh, I see."

"Yes," Jack says with annoyance. "But don't tell everyone.  
But Jack's brother doesn't seem to hear him. "I have to tell everybody." he says. Jack tries to tells him not to, but Christian has already started back in the direction from which he came. Jack glares wide-eyed at the ceiling – which is very high up and littered with twinkling lights – and groans loudly.

He pulls me aside. "Okay, be prepared for _a lot _of staring. Most of my family is going to want to talk to you, and maybe some people I'm not related to." I glance around the room and come up with an estimated two hundred people.

"And exactly how many of these people are related to you?" I ask with a growing notice of eyes on my back.

"Oh, a quarter of the people here." He says. I groan.

So I'm going to have to talk to about fifty people tonight. Yay.

I hear the _click-clack _of heels behind me, and a finger taps on my shoulder. I turn around, disappointed to see Kaliegh smiling at me. She's wearing a short red dress with white, puffy cuffs as if she's the young, female version of Santa Claus. "Hi!" She squeals. "It's so great to see you again."

I turn my head to look at Jack, who is now standing next to me, with an expression of disbelief. "She's kidding, right?"

"I'm not kidding." Kaliegh answers, her voice gone of its false gaiety. "I'm done picking on you now, and I was thinking that we could be friends." She turns to Jack. "But don't think that I'm done teasing you about all this." He rolls his eyes.

I consider her offer of friendship for a moment, and then figure that I'll need a friend besides Jack, especially if the predicted happens. "Hmm, well okay." She smiles at me.

"Ooh, yay." Jack says sarcastically. "Kaliegh finally has a friend."

"I have friends." Kaliegh quickly argues.

"The elves don't count." Elves?

She makes a sound of disgust and opens her mouth to yell at him, when someone puts a hand on her shoulder and she's instantly silent. I look to see who it was, and am surprised to see a big man in a red suit with a long, white beard. Santa Claus.

I quietly gasp in shock. I look to Jack, but he doesn't seem interested in the fact that Santa Claus has his hand on Kaliegh's shoulder. And neither does Kaliegh for that matter.

Kaliegh pastes another fake smile on her face. "Hi, daddy."

My mouth drops open. I elbow Jack, and he turns his head to look down at me. "You don't tell me anything." I whisper angrily at him. He clearly understands what I mean and is trying to hide the smile creeping onto his face. "'Old North' is Santa Claus? How did that not come up?" He shrugs as if he somehow doesn't know, and playfully bumps shoulders with me.

A thick German accent catches my attention. "Jack Frost! I heard that old prophecy from man in moon has come true!" I notice that Kaliegh is no longer in our little group, and so I instinctively step closer to Jack.

I think back to the three times that I went to the mall to sit on Santa Claus's lap before my parents died. I asked for one of those china dolls every time, but never got one. Now I know that it was because my parents couldn't afford one, but back when I was only four I thought it all Santa's fault.

After the car crash, I stopped believing in Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Faery. And now Father Christmas is standing right in front of me. Who would've thought?

I feel eyes on me and look up to see Santa Claus looking directly at me. "Ana Dirone?" he asks. I nod my head. "You ended up with Jack Frost?" He points at Jack, and I nod again. He laughs outright. Jack looks like he wants to punch Santa Claus. He sets his jaw, which still somehow makes him look taller, and I can't help but notice how handsome he is. I swing on my feet a bit, and feel like I'm in a movie from the 1930's.

Santa stops guffawing and says, "But you're so nice." He sounds like he's really trying to figure out why I ended up with Jack now, so I get to listen to him verbalize his thoughts. "You have been on naughty list twice, yes, but still. Makes no sense."

Jack becomes suddenly interested in what old Saint Nicolas is saying. "You've been on the naughty list twice? What did you do?"

I shrug. "I don't know exactly what I did. But if I had to guess I'd say that it was because I stole some gym clothes once or twice, I punched the lights out of Rupert Gines, I poured maple syrup in the pants of all the boys in the orphanage, and because I cut Geometry class once or seven times." I timidly say.

He laughs. "You are bad." He says this with a seductive tone, although I don't think he meant to. I feel my cheeks freeze up and a shiver runs down my spine, which I try to hide.

"Interesting," Jack and I turn away from each other to see Santa studying us. I realize with horror that he was observing our entire conversation, and my cheeks turn blue for an entirely different reason. "Anyway, congratulations, Jack. And good luck, Miss Dirone." He walks away before either of us can reply to what he's said.

I spin on my heels until I'm facing Jack again. "That was so weird." I say. He quickly agrees with me. I look down at my feet and notice that we've been standing in the same spot since we got here. "Are we going to stand here all day?"

He sneers at me with false irritation. "No." He bends his arm as if I'm supposed to loop my arm around his.

"You're not serious."

"Am so. It would be incredibly rude for me not to escort my lady at a party."

I step back from him the slightest bit. "Your lady?" I ask, hiding the giddiness that my new title gives me.

"My arm hurts." He complains.

I laugh and slip my arm through his.

We walk away from the wall that we were standing by, and I notice that we're in a ballroom. There are big double-doors on the opposite side of the room, doors that we probably would've entered from if we'd come here like normal people. There's music playing from somewhere. I compare it all to my Aunt's wedding when I was four. It was very similar to this. It was held in a hotel, and the ballroom was coloured completely brown, not white; there were tons of red-clothed tables, and there was a Christian Rock band playing, they sucked.

Jack stops us by a couple that are whisper yelling at each other. He lets go of me. "Marla," he says, addressing the tall Glacivira with pink hair. She doesn't hear him. "Marla," he says again, but louder. Still, she doesn't notice him. "Marla!" he shrieks.

She flinches and turns around. Her eyes immediately catch me off guard. The irises are white, as if she's blind, but I doubt she is, and her pupils are purple. I will never understand the Glaciviri.

When she sees him a smile breaks out on her face. "Jack!" she exclaims. She hugs him tightly. When they break apart she pinches his cheeks. "Oh, I haven't seen you in forever!"

He backs away from her grasp and then rubs his cheeks. "It's been three years."

"That's a long time."

"No, it is not." he says incredulously.

She rolls her eyes. "Whatever."

While they continue to talk, I notice the Glacivir that Marla was arguing with just moments before. He's looking at Jack with a pained expression, and I begin to wonder who he is. He has jet-black hair, and his skin is a very dark blue. He must sense me watching him, because he glances over at me and glares. I sneer at him in response.

My stare-down with the Glacivir is cut off when Jack slips his arm around my waist and pulls me to his side. He's grinning like an idiot, as he should be. He'd have to be stupid to just randomly grab me.

"Hello," Marla says to me, and I shake her hand. She looks at Jack and me with her white eyes. "Oh, you two are so cute!" she squeals. I smile, simply because I have nothing else to do. I feel Jack's grip on my waist tighten, and I wonder why he gets so uncomfortable whenever anybody makes a reference to us as a pair. Didn't he know this would happen if I came? Not to mention the fact that he keeps holding me like this.

Not that I'm complaining.

The dark-haired Glacivir steps towards the three of us and grips Marla's waist. The smile on her face falls to a frown. I reluctantly step out of Jack's grasp, merely because the creepy Glacivir is doing the same thing.

And then for some reason I feel alone. I feel alone because I don't really understand where I am, but I know for a fact that I'm not on Earth. The only person that I really know is Jack, but I've still only known him for two months. And I'm just nearly fifteen years old, and on my own. Of course I should be used to this by now. I've been an orphan for a decade.

I then put both my arms around Jack's middle and bury my face in his chest like a child. I don't think anybody minds, I'm not included in the conversation anyway.

I smile faintly because he's so tall that I don't even have to bend over to do this. I register his arm resting on my shoulders, and continue to hear talking for a while, but eventually the loudest thing is Jack's heartbeat.

He shakes me a little. "You okay?" His arm slides down to my waist – its favorite location – and I remove my head from his chest to his shoulder.

"Yeah," I say quietly. "That guy freaked me out though."

"Well, I'd hope so," he says, and for a moment I think he's insulting me. "Otherwise you'd be quite odd." We laugh.

"He's Marla's husband. Which makes him my brother-in-law." he explains. "He's pretty creepy and nobody likes him. We all think he should go die in a hole."

"I think you can add me to that list." I say. He laughs until the skin around his eyes crinkles, and I nearly stomp on my own foot when I notice how adorable that is. "So," I start, trying to change the subject in my head, "What's his name?"

"Dreadrick."

"Dread-rick?" I sound out. "Like people 'dread' to meet him?" He doesn't laugh. "Get it? It's a pun." Still, he doesn't find it amusing. "And it wasn't funny." I feel awkward, so I pull away from him, but he tightens his grip on my waist when I do so, making it impossible for me to move.

"Where are you going?" he asks me, a smile in his voice.

I raise an eyebrow at him in question. He is acting weird. And I'm not talking about his usual it's-totally-normal-to-be-able-to-freeze-things-with-my-hands-slash-teleport-slash-fly. I'm saying he's acting weird for _that_.

"Is there something the matter?" I ask.

He doesn't look at me when he says, "Not that I can think of."

Oh, he's lying, I know him well enough to realize when he's hiding something from me, and he is fibbing! I wonder what it is. . . .

Perhaps I could guilt it out of him. No, that wouldn't work. Especially when he's holding me like this! I never thought being so cold would be such a disadvantage. Well, I did as a human, but now the cold is good.

* * *

I feel like someone is stepping on my feet, but it's funny, because I'm not dancing.

Jack and I both look down to see a little girl twirling around, but then tripping on her feet, or other people's feet, and falling a short distance to the ground. She has purple hair like mine, half tied up in a ponytail, half scattered around her face. She's wearing a puffy yellow dress, making her look like a ballerina with long skirts.

"Hi, Naomi." Jack says to her.

She looks up at him with fright. Her eyes widen and she inhales a short breath. Then she runs off, screaming, "Daddy!" as she goes.

"Well, that went smoothly. Don't you think?" says Jack sarcastically.

"Oh, I think it went splendidly."

"Agreed." We shake hands, and then laugh in each other's faces.

We don't notice Christian standing in front of us with Naomi hanging around his neck until we hear her telling her father about how Jack is the scary stranger that was talking to her earlier. "Uncle Jack is not a stranger, Naomi. You know him."

"Nu-uh." Naomi states stubbornly.

"Okay, fine." He puts her on the ground and grabs her hand. "Naomi, this is your Uncle Jack. Say hello."

"Hewwo." she says with the cutest voice I have ever heard.

"Okay, Sweetie," Christian says to his daughter. "Can I leave you with Uncle Jack now? Since you know him." She nods her head, and so her father gives Jack a quick, "Thanks" and runs off.

Not exactly star parenting, but, hey, what do I know?

Naomi turns her head to me. "Are you my aunt?" she asks.

The air gets colder instantly, and I imagine that Jack feels just as uncomfortable as I do. "Uh, why would you ask that?"

"Because Uncle Jack has his arm awound you."

Jack immediately removes his arm from my shoulders. "But now he doesn't. See?" He and I both laugh awkwardly, but Naomi doesn't get it. "No, I am not your aunt." I clarify.

"Okay!" she exclaims, as if her simple question didn't shake any foundations. "I wike your hair," she says randomly. "It's just wike mine!"

"Oh, yeah. Your hair is just like mine! That's so cool!" I say with over exaggerated enthusiasm. I look over to Jack in question, and in response he conveys the expression of a completely confused creature. Well, then. So helpful.

Naomi tries spinning again, and then falls flat on her rump. Jack helps her back into a standing position, and she asks him if he's spoken to his parents yet. I admire how smart she is for a little kid, being able to make connections so quickly.

"Uh, no." Jack says. I glance at him worriedly, because he sounds really nervous.

"Then wet's go!" She grabs his hand and pulls him towards the far side of the room.

He turns his head back to me and mouths the words, _Stay there_.

Well, it looks like I'm staying here.

"Hello!" I hear next to me. I jump away from the sound, and when I look to see what it was, I see a human-sized bunny. "I see that you know Jack Frost." the giant talking jackrabbit inquires with an Australian accent.

I slowly process the fact that I'm talking to a bunny. And it's talking back! "Uh, yeah." I say weakly.

The bunny begins to look as though it's smug. "Ah, and that would lead me to believe that you are his soul mate." I nod my head numbly, not fazed by the fact that someone just referred to me as Jack's soul mate, but rather that an abnormally large bunny from Australia referred to me as Jack's soul mate! "Well, how does it feel? To know that you're stuck with him for all eternity?"

In response I say something real smart like, "Uh . . ."

"Oh, I'm sorry." The bunny laughs. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Bunnymund, the Easter Bunny. And you are?"

"I–I am Ana." I state dully.

He furrows his brow. "You aren't one of those stupid kids from Earth, are you?"

I can only bring myself to be slightly offended by this, what with being so distracted with trying to comprehend my speaking partner. "No, I am not stupid. I'm simply surprised at with whom I am speaking." I throw in the word, 'whom,' to sound intelligent, and am pleased when it works.

"Oh, yeah, you're not stupid. Hardly any kids your age know how to use 'whom.'" I smile faintly, extremely uncomfortable and alone. I wish Jack or Kaliegh were here. But no. I'm stuck with what appears to be a very rude holiday figure. I cross my arms over my chest. "But, really," he starts. "Aren't you a little depressed?"

"About what?" I ask curiously.

"About having to be with Jack Frost forever, of course." He laughs. I get very angry then. I keep it inside though, because I am at a party. But this rabbit on steroids has no right to insult people that I care about just out of the blue.

"No, I'm actually quite pleased." I say complacently. Then I realize what just came out of my mouth. I'm pleased? Where did that come from? I didn't really think when I spoke, which I have seriously got to remember to do. I can't just go around saying dumb stuff like that.

But, actually, was it dumb? Or did I subconsciously mean it?

I look back to the Easter Bunny, and see him staring at me in complete shock. It's all I can do to stifle a laugh. "You mean, you don't think he's a terrible menace or anything?" he asks.

"No," I snap. "He's not that bad. And I don't see how it's any of your business."

"I was just trying to help you out, kid."

"Well, I'm a big girl. I can handle myself." I retort.

He sneers. "Whatever."

As he hops away, I say, "What a rude kangaroo." under my breath. I'm disappointed when he stops and his bunny ears twitch. He hops back over to me.

"What did you just call me?" He leans close to me. "I'm a bunny." I shrug as if to say, _whatever_, and he bounces away. I sigh from exemption.

I turn around only to find more people behind me, and figure that I jinxed something. There are two middle-aged Glaciviri wearing crowns, which strikes me as a bit odd, but I don't make any comments. Jack is standing next to them sheepishly with his shoulders hunched, like a child trying not to get in trouble for a bad score on a test. I guess that they are his parents.

"Hello," the Glacivira with snow-white hair says merrily. "It's so nice to finally meet you." Jack cringes at this, and I wonder as to just what the heck is wrong with him today. I smile politely and shake hands with Jack's parents. I suppose it is kind of awkward that I'm meeting his parents. Especially since we're not even dating or anything. I finally feel bad for Gaylord Focker.

His father speaks with a deep voice. "We're so glad that he finally found you. He was beginning to get a bit lonely, wasn't he?" He and his wife both laugh. And I assume that it's some sort of inside joke.

"Anyhow, you may call us Demetria and Raiden."

"Okay, I'm Ana."

"Oh, what a wonderful name." I smile and thank her. No one has complimented my name since, well, ever. "How old are you?" she asks.

I rack my brain for the date until I realize that it's the twenty-forth of July. "I'll be fifteen on Saturday."

"Oh, well, then you two are the same age!" Raiden exclaims. He takes on an expression of pondering. "Sort of." I look at Jack for a moment, and can't help but feel bad for him. He's staring at the floor, looking totally miserable.

I turn my attention away from him, and notice a grey-haired, chubby Glacivir coming toward us.

He turns to Jack's father. "Lord King, may I please have a word with you?" At his words my eyebrows shoot up and my jaw drops in surprise. I see Jack squeeze his eyes shut, as though he's been kicked. I realize what he's been hiding from me.

His parents walk a few paces away, so I step over to Jack. "You don't tell me anything!" I whisper-yell at him for the second time in the past two hours. "Your parents are royalty!?"

He nods. "I was going to tell you."

"But?"

"But I forgot?" he tries.

"How the heck could you forget something like that, Lord Prince?" I mock.

His voice deepens. "Don't call me that."

"You mean, don't call you things like Prince Jack?"

"Stop it."

I stand on my toes, so that he isn't so much taller than me. "Make me."

"Sorry about that." Raiden says. Jack and I pause our argument and turn back to his parents. "We have some trouble with a new class we're trying to start," he continues. "We can't find a teacher for Algebra."

The smile on my face becomes real at his words because "I can teach Algebra. I graduated from it last year with 102.7%."

This delights Jack's parents, but I can feel Jack glaring at me.

"Well, that's fantastic!" sings Demetria. She turns to her husband. "Problem solved, huh?"

"Indeed." he says. "Well, we must be going. Again, nice to meet you."

"You too." I say, and they walk away.

I turn ninety degrees to my right until I'm facing Jack again. "Looks like I'll be teaching Algebra." He glares at me for about six more seconds and then storms off. I laugh and I'm certain that he hears me because his pace quickens.

Practically skipping, I make my way over to Kaliegh, who is leaning against a wall near the big double doors. "Hey," she says, without looking up. "Where's your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend." I reply. "And he's mad at me right now."

She looks up with interest. "What did you do?"

I lean against the wall with her. "Nothing really. Just called him out on his crap."

"Ooh, I would've liked to see that." I nod. "So what kind of crap did you call him on?"

"Well, he doesn't tell me anything." She raises an eyebrow. "I'm serious." I insist. "He didn't tell me that your dad is Santa Claus, he didn't tell me about the rude Easter Bunny, and he didn't tell me about him being a freaking prince."

"Seriously? You didn't know?"

"Of course I didn't know. He didn't tell me!"

"Okay, okay. Calm down." she says. "But don't get too mad at him for it. He had his reasons."

"Oh, like what?" I snap.

She gives me a tired look. "He doesn't get along well with other people. That's why he moved to the edge of the kingdom. But he's still lonely. I guess he didn't tell you because he figured someone might tell you things about him that would make you not want to be around him."

Okay, so those aren't bad reasons. I moan. "Oh, now I just feel bad!"

She laughs. "Don't feel bad. He was still an ass about it."

She stops talking, so I hold my face in my hands with shame. "Actually, correction;" she continues. "He's still being an ass." I look and see her pointing somewhere. I follow her gaze and see Jack glaring at me. When he catches my eyes, he smirks at me.

I moan again and tip my head back, which results in banging my head against the wall. I gasp in pain and press my hand to the back of my head.

"Wow, you've got it bad."

I look over to Kaliegh with annoyance. "What are you talking about?"

"You like him enough to actually feel bad for," she trails off an gestures to over where Jack is standing. "That."

"What? I do not like him." She raises an eyebrow. "That much."

"Oh, please!" She pushes herself off the wall, and so I do the same. "When I delivered the letter the other day, you were practically swooning over him."

"I was not!" I shriek.

"Oh, I'm sorry." she says mockingly. "Did I say 'practically?' I meant _totally._"

I try glaring at her, but it doesn't work. We both start laughing uncontrollably. "Shut up." I gasp out.

Our laughing dies down, and a young Glacivir offers Kaliegh champagne. She sets her hand on her hip. "Seriously?" He starts chuckling and walks away. Kaliegh sneers at his back.

"What was that about?" I ask.

She rolls her eyes. "He was joking around. He knows I can't drink alcohol, even though I'm like, four thousand years old." I raise an eyebrow in question. "Immortals that are under twenty-one can't drink alcohol, even if we're way past our teens."

"Oh, that's interesting." Then something starts to itch in the back of my mind. "Wait, Jack has alcohol. Brandy. I found it once, but when I looked again it was gone."

"Huh, weird. But it's like I said, he gets lonely." She stops there, but I pry for more of an explanation. She sighs. "It's not like it would kill us to drink alcohol, it just makes us do stupid things," She pauses. "And puke. A lot."

"Okay." I say, my mind elsewhere.

"Hey," Kaliegh starts, regaining my attention. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." I say, wondering what _she_ would want to ask _me_.

"On Earth, I heard that girls have, like, sleepovers?" she asks. I nod. "Oh, okay. Cool." She falls back against the wall and says nothing else.

"So, that's it?"

"Yup." she says, her mind also clearly elsewhere. I lean back against the wall, too.

I think of falling snowflakes. I would wait at the orphanage window for the first snowfall every year. I was never allowed to go outside for it, so the window was the closest I got. Winters in Michigan were always pretty cold, probably since it's so near to Canada.

"Dude," My thoughts are interrupted. "Could you stop making it snow?" Kaliegh asks.

Of course I was thinking of snowflakes. There's snow falling all around me. I reach out, and a snowflake falls on my hand. I smile at the bitter cold of it.

"Seriously," Kaliegh says. "You don't want to start a blizzard in here, do you?" I look over to her absentmindedly, and she's staring right at me. I realize she thinks I'm making the snow, probably because it's only falling on me.

"Oh, I'm not doing this." I say quite certainly. "I wouldn't even know how to start it." I notice an abnormally large snowflake and poke it. It explodes into a bunch of tiny ones. I giggle.

"Then who–" Kaliegh stops. "Oh." I look to her in question, and see her glaring at something to my left. I follow her stare.

Jack. My anger at him melts away, just like the snowflakes on the floor. He's staring at me sweetly, and Kaliegh is right, I am totally swooning over him, no matter how much I wish I wasn't. I know instantly that the snow is an apology, and smile at him.

"Ugh," I hear Kaliegh behind me. "You two are too cute for me." She shoves me forward – not particularly hard, but I wasn't ready for it and snow always makes me a bit ditzy – and I collide into Jack. He helps me up, since my feet are sliding from under me. Once I'm standing upright, my head clears. Kaliegh inhales a loud breath. "Oops." She runs off.

Jack isn't touching me, for one of the first times tonight, but he certainly looks like he wants to.

"I'm sorry." I start. "I just got mad. You probably had a good reason for not telling me about everything."

He looks at the floor. "No, it's my fault. I should've told you and I definitely shouldn't have gotten so irrationally angry." He met my eyes. "I'm sorry."

I cock my head slightly to one side. "You sure can certainly talk pretty." I comment.

He smiles impishly. "Well, I am a prince."

I step slightly closer to him. "Not to me," I say, my remark formulating in my mind. "To me, you're just an idiot."

He laughs. "Fair enough." He smiles widely at me, and something pulls at my heartstrings. I'm careful to let it be, but not to ignore it.

I notice that most of the guests to Lady Naomi's party are gone.

Oh, wow. I just referred to a three-year-old as a lady. It is definitely going to take me a while to get used to this.

Jack slips his arm around my shoulders. "Come on, I just have to do one thing, and then we can leave." I sigh in contentment.

I see Kaliegh, Saint Nick, and the ill-mannered Easter Bunny leaving through the doors, and feel jealous. I know that's not how we'll be leaving.

We walk over to Jack's family. I meet Christian's wife, Lerdona. Jack's mother pulls me aside and tells me to go to the schoolhouse on Sunday for information about my job.

They all stand together for a picture, including an old Glacivira that I assume is Jack's grandmother. Dreadrick and I are standing by the wall, away from the camera. I try to keep my distance from him, but every time I sidle away from him, he simply moves closer. His scent is stale and the feel of his eyes on my body are even worse. I wish to be rid of him, but I don't see that ever being permanent. I believe that this man always gets what he wants.

I hear the snap of a picture, and am disappointed that I missed it, being so preoccupied with the creep that can't take a hint. Jack pulls me away from his completely inappropriate brother-in-law. He starts to ask me if I'm ready to go, but his brother cuts him off.

"Whoa, whoa, Jack. You aren't leaving so soon?" Christian asks, holding Naomi in one of him arms.

"I think you know the answer to that." Jack says. "What do you want?"

"No reason to be so rude. I know you're not particularly photogenic, but geez." Jack huffs impatiently, so Christian quickly says, "I just wanted to ask you about when I could drop Naomi off for those ice skating lessons you promised for her birthday." Naomi squeals in delight.

"What?" Jack asks with a cheery tone, as not to upset Naomi, I suppose.

"You know," Christian says. He then mouths, _Play along._

Jack opens his mouth with what I'm sure is no intention to play along, so I talk faster. "You can drop her off on Monday, right, Jack?" I smile hopefully at him. He glowers at me, but doesn't seem to be truly angry.  
"Of course," he says with a tight smile. "Monday it is." Naomi laughs happily, and her father walks off with her. Jack turns to me. "You are evil."

"I know," I say with mock sardonicism. "Bounding for the happiness of a child. Truly, a sin."

He laughs. "Whatever. Can we go now?"

"Since you want to so badly, yes." I reply.

He rolls his eyes, and winds his arms around my waist, pulling me against him. "Hold on tight." I wrap my arms around him tightly, and squeeze my eyes shut.

The tearing with no pain starts again.

Everything comes back together, again.

I pry my eyes open, which had for some reason frozen shut. I find us in the living room of Jack's house. Same place we were three hours ago.

I'm still pressed up against Jack, and turn my head to face him. He's staring at me with the same amusement that I've seen already several times today. I smile timidly back. I have a premonition of something, but can't quite tell what, only that it isn't anything bad.

He kisses me. I stand on my toes, so that he doesn't have to bend his neck so much, and that so I don't have to strain mine so much either.

It's wonderful, despite the awkwardness of it being my first kiss.

When we break apart, I can't help but smile, even though I probably look like a giant idiot.

Then again, he does too.

We let go of each other, but then he puts his arms back around my waist, and I lay my hands on his upper arms.

He smiles alluringly at me. "Well, I guess we're together now."

I audibly wince. "Sorry," I say. "But no."

His brow furrows. "What do you mean?"

"My mother used to tell me that I wasn't allowed to date until I was fifteen."

He laughs breathily. "So even though that's only two days away, you won't let me say that?"

"Nope." I always told myself that I wouldn't date until I was fifteen, just like Mom said. His kissing me two days prior doesn't mean that I'm going to fall back on that now.

He rests his forehead against mine. "But I've already kissed you."

"True," I sigh, feeling as if I'm putting on a show. "I suppose there's nothing I can do about kissing."

"Perfect." he says, a grin in his voice.

And perfect, it is.


End file.
